Chapter Summaries

Ji Jue entered the Workshop’s central hub as its defenses and shifting structure threatened the intruders, then used Spirit Essence Vision and Fluid Alchemy to understand its changing paths. By merging himself with the Workshop through the Old Furnace’s authority, he opened a passage and drove into the darkness with his companions.

• Ji Jue entered the Defense Domain unharmed, while two intruders who followed him were attacked by the defenses and swallowed by the darkness.
• The Devil-Crafted Ball activated Spirit Essence Vision, revealing the hub’s inner workings and the other intruders, including a Rank 8 member of the Dragon Offering Society.
• The core and Rift World shook and transformed, and Prophet explained that Ji Jue needed to look beyond appearances and grasp the essence of Fluid Alchemy.
• Ji Jue realized he could use Fluid Alchemy on himself to become part of the Workshop, and merged with it through the authority of the Old Furnace.
• A shifting passage opened in the wall, and Ji Jue urged Little An to hold on as he rode the vehicle into it.

Ji Jue and Little An raced through Mercury’s workshop, collecting valuable materials while Ji Jue used Deus Ex Machina and the Prophet’s guidance to navigate its central hub. They encountered a blood-soaked, monstrous remnant of Mercury, which spared them and continued singing.

• Ji Jue and Little An stole a massive Time Sand Crystal during their chaotic ride through the workshop, and Ji Jue told Little An they had merely picked it up.
• Ji Jue followed the Prophet and Ball Bro’s map deeper into the central hub, using his connection to its systems to navigate the shifting machinery.
• Ji Jue questioned whether the Prophet was Mercury, and she denied it while remarking that Mercury was everywhere in the workshop.
• Ji Jue and Little An found a hall filled with corpses and saw a towering Five-Legged Deer Head singing among them.
• Mercury’s monstrous remnant approached Ji Jue, touched his face, then walked away without harming him.
• The Prophet told Ji Jue that the creature was an Ember left behind after the Melting furnace known as Mercury had cooled.

Ji Jue and Prophet descended into the abyss to find Non-Aggression, where Ether preserved fragments of Mercury’s past. As the Old Times swallowed them, Ji Jue witnessed Mercury’s memories of her daughter Gloria and the life she left behind.

• Prophet explained that the vanished figure was Mercury’s remnant and led Ji Jue toward Non-Aggression at the bottom of the deep well.
• Ji Jue and Prophet descended into the darkness as haunting voices and wandering figures appeared around them.
• Ji Jue saw Mercury reunite with her daughter in a memory, then witnessed scenes of Mercury leaving Gloria behind and Gloria longing for her mother.
• Prophet identified the visions as Old Times, fragments of the past preserved by Ether, and revealed that the town had been Mercury’s hometown.
• The Old Times surged out of the darkness and swallowed Ji Jue and Prophet.

Ji Jue witnessed the false reconstruction of Mercury’s lost hometown and learned why she had turned the Rift World into a vast receiver for time. The Prophet explained that Mercury could not undo the calamity she had caused, leaving Ji Jue to face the limits of changing the past.

• Ji Jue arrived in a flickering reflection of Mercury’s hometown, and the Prophet explained that the Workshop had gathered fragments of its past.
• The Devil-Crafted Ball realized Mercury had transformed the Rift World into a collector for Superior Virtue · Eternal Gate, gathering time for four hundred years.
• Ji Jue saw Mercury grieving among the ruins and learned that she had helped the Mohists destroy the Heavenly Origin Tower, unleashing calamities that killed everyone she loved.
• The Prophet told Ji Jue that Mercury had spent her life trying to restore what she lost, but only created a false dream and an endless cycle.
• Ji Jue questioned whether the past could be changed, and the Prophet said it could not as he struggled with his own hopes of preventing past losses.

Ji Jue found Feigong’s old Workshop, awakened the Matrix Feigong by answering the wish to reshape the world, and returned to reality as the core began rising and the Reboot approached. Lou Feng confronted the group at the end of the chapter.

• Ji Jue spoke with the memory of a little girl waiting for her mother, then entered Mercury’s old Workshop and discovered Mercury was absent.
• Ji Jue reached toward the repeating world and called upon Feigong, awakening the power left by the former Master through his Wristwatch.
• The Formless Hand seized Ji Jue, and the Feigong Creation transformed his Spirit Essence, covering his arms in intricate Totems.
• Ji Jue returned to his companions and revealed his new power, Matrix Feigong, as the core violently expanded and rose toward the surface.
• The group was ejected into a collapsing hall, where the Prophet announced that the Reboot was about to begin.
• Little An caught a crimson arrow, and Lou Feng confronted Ji Jue and his companions with near-mad rage.

Ji Jue refused Lou Feng’s offer to trade for Non-Aggression, forcing the two sides into conflict. Ji Jue demonstrated the Matrix’s power, and Lou Feng attacked while still unable to determine how it worked.

• Lou Feng recognized Non-Aggression as a Celestial Realm Matrix and offered Ji Jue anything the Lou Clan could provide in exchange for it.
• Ji Jue refused to hand over Non-Aggression, and Lou Feng threatened him and ordered him to surrender it.
• After Ji Jue challenged him to take the Matrix by force, Lou Feng attacked with a Spirit Essence Blade and a Spirit Essence Hammer, both of which Ji Jue stopped and destroyed.
• Lou Feng realized that Non-Aggression was likely responsible and fired a Spiritual Substance arrow infused with the Blessing of Incineration.
• Ji Jue dodged the arrow’s explosion, mounted Little Cow and Horse, and fired back at Lou Feng.

Ji Jue and Little An fought Lou Feng and the Homecoming Knights after Lou Feng attacked them, turning the battle around with their Matrix abilities and explosives. Lou Feng was left battered and exposed to Ji Jue’s gunfire.

• Lou Feng recognized mercury in the bullet that grazed him and ordered Slan and the Homecoming Knights to attack Little Cow and Horse.
• Little An asked Ji Jue if he could kill their attackers, and Ji Jue gave him permission.
• Little An used Dark Star and iron shards to cut down knights and clash with Slan, unveiling his Matrix · Sword Cry.
• Ji Jue used mercury constructs to surround Lou Feng and detonated sixteen grenades, destroying the Lou Clan elder’s spirit essence avatar.
• Ji Jue shot Lou Feng repeatedly with mercury-transformed slugs, explaining that his Matrix Feigong had overturned the fight.

Ji Jue used Feigong Creation to disrupt Lou Feng’s spirit-essence attacks, bluffing him into retreat while Little An held off the Homecoming Knights. As the knights prepared a blood-fueled assault, they discovered too late that Ji Jue’s concealed motorcycle-mounted machine gun was aimed at their backs.

• Ji Jue used Feigong to dissolve Lou Feng’s shaped spirit-essence beast, then secretly repaired his injured hands with alchemy.
• Lou Feng mistook Ji Jue’s bluff for overwhelming power, retreated behind a barrier, and wasted an ordinary shot blocking an ice-iron wall.
• Slan warned Lou Feng not to fight alone, and the Homecoming Knights regrouped around him while Little An continued to hold them off.
• The Homecoming Knights drank their medicine and invoked Blood Burning Sacrifice, preparing to attack as Lou Feng realized the motorcycle was missing.
• The concealed Little Motorcycle revealed a six-barreled heavy machine gun, which began firing at the Homecoming Knights from behind.

Ji Jue arrived during the battle and used his Temporary Workshop to disable Lou Feng’s equipment, then took control of the confrontation. He forced Slan and the surviving Homecoming Knights to disarm while Little An remained wounded and held hostage.

• Lou Feng’s defenses buckled under Little Cow and Horse’s gunfire, while Slan charged through the barrage and destroyed its machine gun.
• Little An used the Archery Rite to pierce the enemy formation and nearly kill Lou Feng, but Slan’s spear pinned him down as Little An’s final strike cut Lou Feng’s neck.
• Ji Jue emerged behind Lou Feng and suppressed the group’s abilities and equipment with his Temporary Workshop, then beat Lou Feng and threatened him to control Slan.
• Slan held his blade to Little An’s neck, but Ji Jue shot Lou Feng’s hand and forced the six surviving knights to drop their weapons.
• Slan offered the recovered valuables in exchange for Lou Feng’s release, but Ji Jue refused and warned that he would pursue the knights for years if they harmed Little An.

Ji Jue exchanged Lou Feng for Little An and treated the boy’s wounds while they discussed Little An’s risky stand against Slan. As the Workshop’s transformation intensified, Formless burst from the sealed darkness in a terrified, unraveling state.

• Slan exchanged Little An for the unconscious Lou Feng, then led his mercenaries away without attacking Ji Jue.
• Ji Jue bandaged Little An, who explained that challenging stronger opponents could earn a White Deer Blessing; Ji Jue pointed out that Little An had risked his life to help him rather than pursue that goal.
• Ji Jue found a cursed nail embedded in Little An’s knee, but Little An said his sister had placed it there to prevent other family members from interfering.
• The Workshop’s Spirit Essence circuits spread as tremors grew stronger, and a scream sounded from the sealed central hub.
• The sealed doors shattered, and Formless emerged as a mass of dissolving spirit bodies, desperately trying to escape the darkness behind it.

Ji Jue witnessed Mercury’s terrifying awakening as the central hub rose, while White Owl arrived in the Rift World and destroyed Formless. The map explained that Mercury carried the bitterness, hatred, and despair of the Mohists after they severed the Heavenly Origin Tower, leaving White Owl to face the sorrow behind the Sage’s choice.

• Formless exploded to escape the darkness as the Deer-Headed Wraith entered through the dust-covered doors, and an ancient song spread across the Rift World.
• Ji Jue asked the Prophet what was happening, and the Prophet identified the gathering spirits as Mercury’s Embers returning to a lingering fire.
• White Owl encountered Formless, seized it when it attacked, and destroyed the former Shepherd.
• Mercury’s central core unfolded into a vast shape of wings and hands, shedding blood-red tears across the Rift World.
• White Owl demanded an explanation from the map, which said Mercury bore the Mohists’ sins and described why they severed the Heavenly Origin Tower despite the consequences.
• White Owl saw the light of Mercury’s first sword against the Eternal Empire and understood that the falling light had been tears.

Mercury repeatedly rewound the Rift World in an attempt to return to the past and reclaim her lost child, but the collapsed Heavenly Origin Tower made that impossible. The Prophet finally stopped the cycle by commanding the Workshop to imprison Mercury again.

• Mercury's Creation Theory reconstructed the town and repeatedly rewound the Rift World, but the ruined Heavenly Origin Tower blocked the path back to the past.
• The Prophet explained that Mercury used causality to simulate the past, hoping to reach the Eternal Gate and recover her lost child, but every attempt failed and worsened her torment.
• Ji Jue said he understood Mercury's wish to see her child again, and the Prophet told him he was exactly like her.
• Mercury continued rewinding the world, sacrificing her body and sanity as she tried in vain to reach the past.
• The Prophet commanded the Rift World to stop, and the Workshop rose to pierce Mercury and imprison her, ending the cycle.

The Prophet revealed that the Workshop had imprisoned Mercury and that the suffering creations of the Rift World were choosing to end their endless cycles. She offered Ji Jue the authority to decide their fate and pleaded with him to free them and Mercury.

• The Prophet’s power suppressed the Workshop and revealed that it had kept Mercury imprisoned while preserving her soul.
• The final bell awakened the scarlet sea, and mutated creatures and camp members transformed themselves into chains that bound the Sage.
• Ji Jue confronted the Prophet over the camp’s fate, and she explained that the creations considered their existence a hell and had chosen to return to nothingness.
• Ji Jue recognized the Prophet as the Masterwork formed from Mercury, the Workshop Core, and the Rift World’s shattered souls and obsessions.
• The Prophet offered Ji Jue the scepter and authority to command the Workshop, pleading with him to free the creations and Mercury.

Ji Jue took control of the Rift World and, after a dreamlike farewell that helped him choose not to prolong its suffering, accepted the Edge of Transformation. He judged Sage Mercury’s creation and severed the cycle sustaining the Stagnant Decay Furnace Core, as the old world began to collapse.

• Ji Jue became the true master of the Rift World but was overwhelmed by the suffering trapped in its endless cycles.
• In a vision, a girl gave Ji Jue a family pendant and urged him to let the past end and move toward his own future.
• Ji Jue chose to stop the suffering, took the scepter, and joined with the workshop through Deus Ex Machina.
• The Prophet awakened the Edge of Transformation and placed its thorned crown on Ji Jue, while the awakened implement silenced the creations and Blessings of the world.
• Ji Jue invoked Superior Virtue, judged Sage Mercury’s creation to be evil, and revealed the Nine Evils’ Stagnant Decay Furnace Core beyond the Curtain.
• Ji Jue used the Edge of Transformation to sever the connections sustaining the cycle, and the dream and its world began to collapse.

Ji Jue erased the Sage’s cycle of decay and used the Edge of Transformation to let Mercury look back at the girl she had lost. After the Prophet died, Ji Jue was left in the desolate Rift World with a new blessing and the journey she predicted still ahead of him.

• Ji Jue wielded the Edge of Transformation to destroy the vortex projection, the Stagnant Decay Furnace Core, and the Sage’s remains, ending the cycle and igniting the Sage’s Creation Theory.
• Carried through time, Ji Jue saw Mercury leave the girl behind and threw his pendant toward her, giving Mercury one final glimpse of the girl across four hundred years.
• A brilliant light rose from the abyss, and a streak of flowing light entered Ji Jue’s soul, granting him the emblem of Supreme Goodness as he fell back into the Rift World.
• Ji Jue told the dying Prophet that the dream and reincarnation cycle had ended and that she was free.
• The Prophet thanked Ji Jue, wished for his journey to fulfill his desire, and died as her Spiritual Substance vanished.

Ji Jue escaped the collapsing Rift World and returned to the real world, where he reunited with Little An and discovered that Xiao Jiu had become a small bird named Gloria. He took Gloria and the Little Cow and Horse home, while her identity as a creation made for the first time left him wondering what Prophet had hidden from him.

• As the Rift World collapsed, Ji Jue activated the Prophet’s escape authority, but the Wristwatch’s recovery system instead collected the Workshop’s resources and left him falling into the void.
• Ji Jue was swallowed by the interworld gate and returned to the real world, where he saw the Security Bureau camp and Little An waiting nearby.
• A small emerald bird landed on Ji Jue’s shoulder and introduced herself as Xiao Jiu, explaining that Prophet had told her to stay with him.
• Xiao Jiu remembered that Prophet had once called her Gloria, and Ji Jue realized her existence challenged what he had been told about the endless cycle.
• Ji Jue welcomed Gloria, promised her chicken legs, and drove home with her and the Little Cow and Horse.

White Owl and the Commander discussed rebellion, fate, and the Edge of Transformation’s resonance, which may have sent Mercury into the past to challenge a predetermined outcome. As upheaval spread across the world, Ji Jue rejected a summons to the Central Dispatch Center and went back to sleep.

• The Commander told White Owl how emperors had eliminated threats and freedoms, and argued that rebels resisted the shackles of absolute rule.
• White Owl reported that Mercury had awakened the Edge of Transformation, and the Commander burned his hand when he tried to touch its case.
• The Commander explained that Mandate of Heaven was a label for outcomes, then showed White Owl evidence that a lunar eclipse had shifted because something had changed in the past.
• The Commander inferred that Mercury had crossed time using the Edge of Transformation, though he did not know whether she had succeeded, and he sailed away with White Owl.
• Two days later, an explosion struck Rhine Port, Lujius was assassinated, and White State declared a war of vengeance against Red Banner as tensions rose.
• Ji Jue saw a prompt asking him to proceed to the Central Dispatch Center, rejected it, and went back to sleep.

Ji Jue returned to the Workshop after an eventful trip through the Rift World, proudly showing off his new Matrix inheritance and reporting a major haul to Professor Ye. His account ended with her asking whether Lou Da Shao had survived their encounter intact.

• Ji Jue enjoyed breakfast with the Lu family before driving Lu Ling to Heavenly Gate on his newly expanded, cargo-laden tricycle.
• Ji Jue arrived at the Workshop and showed Ye Chun the Non-Aggression Matrices on his hands, but she asked whether they would prevent him from taking the civil service exam.
• Ji Jue handed Professor Ye his paper and teased Ye Chun about losing the chance to be its second author.
• Ji Jue reported obtaining Non-Aggression, an Embers Blessing, and an advancement, then described bringing back a truckload of expanded Eternal Gate boxes and other materials.
• Ji Jue admitted that he had fought Lou Da Shao and tied him up, prompting Professor Ye to ask whether he had left Lou Da Shao an intact corpse.

Ji Jue told Professor Ye about the extraordinary knowledge and relics he had brought back from the riftworld, including Fluid Alchemy and Edge of Transformation. After reviewing the Devil-Crafted Ball’s recording, Professor Ye took him to an underground training space to teach him Spirit Essence Offense and Defense, and Ji Jue opened the lesson with a sneak attack.

• Ji Jue confessed that he had learned Fluid Alchemy and demonstrated it by shaping transmutation mercury into a Small Three-Wheeler.
• Ji Jue recounted his contact with the Moists’ history, Mercury’s workshop, the destroyed riftworld, and Edge of Transformation, then showed Professor Ye the sleeping metal bird.
• Professor Ye used the Devil-Crafted Ball to watch the recording of Ji Jue’s exploration and concluded that his haul had far exceeded expectations.
• Professor Ye transported Ji Jue to an underground training space and bound herself with restraints to suppress her abilities for their lesson.
• Ji Jue agreed to spar with Professor Ye, then lunged at her with a sudden sneak attack.

Ji Jue tried to defeat Professor Ye with surprise attacks and clever uses of Non-Aggression, but she countered him with superior martial skill and the Disintegration Art. After his final trap failed, Ye Xian revealed Mo Xie's trait: it kept Ji Jue's Spiritual Substance from reaching her even when he held her wrist.

• Ji Jue launched a reinforced surprise attack, but Professor Ye threw him to the floor and advised him to conceal his intentions.
• Ji Jue attacked again with a hand blade, but Professor Ye deflected it and narrowly spared his eye while explaining his haste made him predictable.
• Professor Ye struck Ji Jue's blood-hardened shirt, then used the Disintegration Art to collapse its Spirit Essence Circuit and drive him back.
• Ji Jue used blood and his jacket to restrain Professor Ye's left hand, then grabbed her right wrist and activated Non-Aggression.
• Ye Xian showed Ji Jue that Mo Xie kept his Spiritual Substance from contacting her body, leaving an unreachable distance between his hand and her skin.